Mahe is the primary island and houses the capitol of the republic and maybe 75% of the population. We spent just a few days here to get oriented do a bit of hiking and relax on the nearby beaches. To me, this island seemed like Hawaii. Nice beaches, lots of people, resorts and traffic. Maybe the rest of the island is great, but I think it's probably more of the same. Resort city.
It's pretty simple for me. The tiny island of La Digue is the epitome of a natural island paradise. The entire island can be walked. There are only a couple dozen cars on the island - mostly taxis. Bicycles are a nicety, not a necessity to get to even the furthest beaches. And the beaches are stunningly beautiful. Ever seen a postcard or photo of the Seychelles. Chances are it was from the amazing Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue. Oh and I say 'natural' paradise because there are no major resorts here. It's almost entirely overgrown guest houses.
We almost didn't make it here. La Digue was so great that we nearly stayed there for two weeks. But we decided to give Praslin a chance to be better than La Digue. Well, that didn't happen, but it's still a nice place. It's definitely more on the resorty end of things. The good beaches have restaurants and hotels or resorts. But even with that, there still aren't too many people around to share the beaches with. The amount of privacy in the islands is absolutely unreal. We went out to nearby St. Pierre Island for snorkeling, Curieuse Island to visit a tortoise sanctuary and then Ave Maria rock spit for some scuba diving.